How to Catch a Supernova (or One of its Transient Friends) - Ashish Mahabal - 07/28/2023

How do the astronomical objects in our sky change from night to night? What sorts of objects change and why? How can members of the public interact with real scientific data from our telescopes each night? Join us for a 30-minute lecture investigating our dynamic sky, followed by a panel Q&A consisting of several astrophysicists to answer your questions about astrophysics and space science. Timestamps below:

00:00 Announcements
04:54 Intro to Astronomical Transient Presentation
05:40 Astronomical Transient Presentation
42:47 Q&A for Astronomical Transient Presentation
43:01 "How did you choose the ZARTH avatar?"
43:40 "Where do the science and reference images come from?"
44:42 "Are these apparent magnitudes in ZARTH?"
45:27 "How do you get to 20th magnitude object in only 30 seconds?"
46:26 "Are there transients that are both intrinsic and extrinsic transients?"
47:21 Intermission
52:19 Q&A Panel Introductions
55:55 "Where are these massive datasets stored and managed?"
58:42 "Are the light curves used for predicting future behavior of transients?"
1:02:57 "Where are telescopes located in the world and why?"
1:06:27 "What percentage of the sky do you have access to?"
1:08:59 "How do you infer the period of a rapidly rotating object?"
1:11:24 "What are the benefits to putting a telescope in space?"
1:13:29 "How do we distinguish between supernovae and tidal disruption events?"
1:18:56 "Why aren't there telescopes in the Himalaya?"
1:22:16 "Is it possible to see the Big Bang itself?"
1:29:04 "How much farther away is something now than it was when it emitted light in the past?"
1:32:21 "Which elements form in a supernova explosion?"
1:37:46 "What is your favorite supernova?"
1:39:36 "How long does it take for a supernova to explode?"
1:43:27 "What about the 26 billion year old universe?"
1:45:26 "What are your thoughts on Avi Loeb's claims about aliens?"
1:54:23 "Is the static on our TVs due to the cosmic microwave background?"
1:56:36 Concluding Remarks

The Android App that our speaker was discussing is named ZARTH. It is a bit like Pokemon Go, and allows you to "catch" astronomical transients of real day-old astronomical data from our telescopes. It's free on the Android App Store, or you can find out more about it here: https://zarth.caltech.edu/

Title: How to Catch a Supernova (or One of its Transient Friends)
Speaker: Ashish Mahabal
Abstract:
Astronomical technology has now advanced to recording the entire night sky every few days, allowing us to effectively generate movies of how our sky changes with time. These data reveal in real time the dynamic nature of our night sky including supernovae, star-ripping blackholes, flaring stars, asteroids, comets, and more. Every night, our telescope, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), detects a hundred thousand astronomical objects that are brightening or fading overhead. News of these detections are sent out to other scientists as well as the public for scientific follow up. Using these alerts, we have created an Android app called ZARTH, to allow anyone to "catch" these objects, learn more about them, and enter a friendly competition with others in creating the best transient collection by interacting with real astronomical data as it is observed. We will describe the science of these astronomical objects, the app, and how to play it. Embark on this stellar journey with us and experience the thrill of hunting for the universe's most dynamic events.

Note: Due to an illness, we had a last-minute change to the schedule, and the previous talk entitled "Stellar Tantrums and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life" will be given in a few months.

Видео How to Catch a Supernova (or One of its Transient Friends) - Ashish Mahabal - 07/28/2023 канала Caltech Astro